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Tuesday, October 14, 2014

Matt looks @ New York Comic Con 2014: Sunday

Here we are at the final day of New York Comic Con. What a day its been. We start off the day at the Bandai booth where the line for tickets for Power Ranger toys is already wrapping around the booth. Right after that, its back to the show floor. Today I really tried to get that middle area in between the big gun company booths and the small guys on the lower number isle end. Let me tell you, that is by far the best place to hang out. I met so many cool people who came to get their name out in the world. Artists, writers, painters, vendors, even some celebrities that I've loved my whole life. Who would've thought that all the way in the corner of NYCC would Marky Ramone be signing autographs and taking pics right next to Billy West! Ok, fine, I'll tell you. He's a voice actor known for tens of roles I'm sure you all know. *deep breath* Ren & Stimpy, the red M&M, Futurama's Fry AND Zoidberg, and that's only to name a few. I met a real cool artist named Ryan Alexander. He was selling custom prints in his little 3x3 booth at prices that are unimaginable for NYCC. I bought a real nice TMNT print for, get ready, only $5. Getting anything from NYCC for only $5 that isn't broken or fake is unheard of, but this guy just wanted to get his name out there. If you get a chance, check him out. His work is really spot on. My next stop was a booth I see every year, but never stop at. I never owned any of the products that were sold at this booth, until this year, but I've always been a fan of the man running the booth. The booth belonged to Claudio Sanchez, he's the lead singer and one of the guitarists for major rock band Coheed & Cambria. The reason for him being there is he writes a comic book that follows the bands music. Being a fan of the band for years, I've always wanted to get into the books and this was my year to start. I was able to get the hardcovers and even get them signed for just $30 each. They print under the publisher BOOM and Evil Ink Comics and let me say, I'm only a couple pages into the book. Not even through the first issue yet, and I've already got a better understanding of the band's music and a deeper appreciation for the band and book as a whole.

The only panel of the day was the Spider-Verse panel but boy that short 45 minutes was packed to the very brim of brims with announcements, explosions, giveaways and death. Get ready to jump in head first into the Spider-Verse! First thing we're shown was the Amazing Spider-Man #8 where we're given one more Edge of Spider-Verse issue following the alternate universe daughter of Peter Parker and Mary-Jane, May Parker. Next was the final Edge of Spider-Verse book #5 written by Gerard Way from My Chemical Romance. In this book, we're introduced to a robot/mech/dude/guy thing and I can't wait to pick this up soon. Next, we're shown the beginning chapter of Spider-Verse with Amazing Spider-Man #9 and the following chapter in ASM 10. Some new books are coming out of the Spider-Verse, the first one being a brand new ongoing Spider-Woman seires starring Jessica Drew! Females are in control as another new ongoing series gets announced, Silk! She's the now sidekick of Parker who got bit by the same exact spider as Peter. She has some tweaked powers, meaning she's better than Spider-Man, and has been trapped for 10 years, since she got bit and was recently freed by Spider-Man. Now she's out in the world and ready to take it on herself. Keeping the women strength theme going, by popular and strong demand Spider-Gwen is happening!

The response to Edge of Spider-Verse #2 starring a Gwen Stacy where in her universe got bit by the radioactive spider instead of Peter, was so overwhelming that they're taking her and giving her her very own series so we can keep up with her in her own universe. Now not only are there going to be new ongoing series starting, but a couple of limited series are starting, which I think I'm more excited for. Mainly because my wallet can't handle all these brand new, more than likely $4 books. One of those is probably the one I'm most excited for is called Scarlet Spiders. This is a 3-issue series starring Scarlet Spiders from a couple different universes. One is the Ultimate Universe's Scarlet Spider, Jessica Drew, the regular 616 Universe Scarlet Spider, Kaine Parker and here's the big bomb...Ben Reilly. He's coming from a universe where he remained Spider-Man after Peter Parker went powerless. Another limited series is called Spider-Verse Team Up. In this 3-part series, we have two stories per book. In each story, a team of Spider-Men are sent to a different universe to recruit another Spider-Man to the army. 3 books, 6 stories, tons of Spider. Definitely a cool book to check out, especially if you're like me and have a soft spot for team-up books. They continued onto some Axis crossovers coming out of the Spidey Office. These tie ins are focusing on villains instead of heroes. The first one being centered around Hobgoblin and the second focusing on Carnage. They closed the show showing off brand new Spidey/X-Men series Spider-Man & the X-Men. Spidey is taking over the teaching job of Wolverine who is being killed off this week. How will he deal with teaching again but not an ordinary class? Gotta buy it and find out! They also showed us the Amazing Spider-Man Annual and leaked a second story entitled the Amazing Aunt May. I can't wait for all these books and all the overwhelming amount of Spider-People crawling all over my comics pull list!

Well, that wraps up another New York Comic Con! This year was filled with walking, talking, buying, signing, laughing, rushing, listening, standing, not a lot of sleeping, zero sitting and a whoooooooole lotta comics! Be sure to check back regularly as I'm sure most of the books announced this weekend will be making appearances on our website! Hopefully, if you didn't get to go this year for whatever reason, you can make it out next year and have some fun with us!